Central High site encourages Pokemon Go players to visit, learn

The Pokemon Go app directed a reporter to a "Staryu" swimming in the pool at Little Rock Central High School. The creature promptly fled onto the nearby grass.
The Pokemon Go app directed a reporter to a "Staryu" swimming in the pool at Little Rock Central High School. The creature promptly fled onto the nearby grass.

A virtual pit-stop for the Pokemon Go craze at a National Historic Site marking Little Rock Central High School's 1957 Desegregation Crisis is not seen as a threat to park's significance, according to its director.

Superintendent Robin White told Arkansas Online she has not had any contact with the developers of the Pokemon Go game, in which players use augmented reality on their smartphones to collect characters from the popular Japanese franchise throughout real-world locations.

The visitor center housing the site's museum was listed as a "Pokestop" within the app, essentially a location intended to draw players to collect items within the game.

Sensitive locations in other cities such as war memorials and the National Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. have gone public with the message that playing Pokemon is not appropriate at those sites.

But White said she would welcome players if they came to the museum on Daisy Bates Drive willing to learn more about history of the desegregation crisis.

"What's happening beyond our walls today echoes what was happening 60 years ago," White said. "If this is an opportunity for an activity to start a dialogue, then so be it."

Other, less hallowed grounds, have also embraced the app as a method to draw visitors. The Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism issued a news release Friday encouraging people to play at state parks, while offering tips on how to do so safely.

A reporter who travelled to the Central High School museum saw no people playing the game early Thursday morning. Returning in the afternoon, the museum was bustling with visitors, though none seemed to be playing the game.

An intern working with park rangers at the site, Clifford McLeod, said he had not seen an increase in people coming by to play the game. But he said he had "caught a lot" of Pokemon himself in the area around the museum.

He agreed with White that the museum's presence within the game is good for drawing interest in the site, so long as players don't take up space within the exhibits.

""It's just going to bring more people here, eventually someone is going to say 'let's go inside,'" McLeod said.

National Parks Service Director Jonathan Jarvis visited the school in February, highlighting the need of national parks and monuments to attract more diverse visitors from across the country.

The high school located a block away is listed as a gym in Pokemon Go, another virtual location where users can meet up and play each other.

On Thursday, the app directed a reporter to a pool in front of the school's historic oak front doors. There, a "Staryu," a Pokemon similar to a Starfish, appeared on the phone to be swimming in the waters.

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The visitor center at the Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site is a "Pokestop" in the popular new Pokemon Go mobile game. The site's director said players are welcome, and are encouraged to learn and start "dialogue."

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